


What Not to Wear

by daisygrl



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-19 01:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17592347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisygrl/pseuds/daisygrl
Summary: Zelda reluctantly decides to take a trip to Greendale's only outlet mall to choose a casual outfit for Sabrina's mortal birthday party. Mary Wardwell happens to be there, and is only too happy to help. Awkwardness and fluff ensues.





	What Not to Wear

**Author's Note:**

> I had this vision of Zelda wearing casual clothing and it stuck with me! I also headcanon her as having anxiety when she is outside of her comfort zone, as well as being secretly jealous of Hilda's interpersonal skills. This story features pre-possession Mary, who is the world's biggest cinnamon roll (and for sure a closeted lesbian.) Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Sunday afternoon. Hot. Sunlight was streaming through the windows and illuminating every speck of dust that had wandered onto Zelda's eyelashes and into her nose, making her sneeze. Her heavy hair was making the back of her neck sweat, and she shoved it aside with her free hand. Her weight was unbalanced with the bulky shopping basket she had picked up, and she briefly wondered if she could weave a quick glamour and let the basket float on its own without alerting the mortals around her to anything unusual.  _Hell only knows how Hilda puts up with this every week_ , she grimaced. Hilda was patient and she could interact with mortals on a level that Zelda couldn't begin to fathom. Much to her chagrin, this quality made her younger sister much better than her when it came to the day-to-day operations at the mortuary. She would never admit to this, of course. While Hilda nodded and passed tissues and teared up at the appropriate moments, Zelda could barely refrain from asking whether or not the burial would be of the closed casket variety and excusing herself to preheat the oven accordingly. She was thankful that she possessed a talent for numbers, and usually left Hilda to manage the customer service aspect of their business while she handled the bookkeeping.  

Unfortunately, Hilda's mortal-like capacity for empathy and patience also made her the more popular aunt when it came to Sabrina. Their little girl was about to turn nine, and Hilda had busied herself with the preparations over the past couple of weeks. At Sabrina's request, there was to be a unicorn cake, unicorn-shaped balloons, and an outing to the movie theater to watch some saccharine children's movie about a unicorn that could speak. Zelda had tried to explain to her niece that unicorns rarely spoke, and generally only upon the moment of their own deaths. This well-intended lesson had been met with tears from Sabrina and a scowl of admonition from her sister. Only Ambrose had commiserated with her, although Zelda suspected it was only because he himself had told Sabrina a great number of objectionable tales. She shuddered at the though. Satan only knew what effect an unchecked imagination could have on Sabrina's budding powers. 

The muffled sound of a shrill voice over the PA system, alerting the staff to some clean-up on some aisle, snapped Zelda out of her reverie. Her guilt over the unicorn incident, coupled with the fact that Hilda would be attending a job interview on precisely the Saturday of the party, meant that it had fallen to Zelda to shepherd a horde of screaming nine-year-old mortals (and the half-witch of honor) to the movie theater.  Which was how she now found herself, sweating and growing more frustrated by the minute, in the middle of Greendale's only outlet mall searching for an appropriate outfit. The high heels of her Italian leather shoes sang against the cheap linoleum as she wove in and around the aisles of cheap clothing. She hadn't bought new clothes in decades. Even her shoes had been handcrafted in a small Venetian shop sometime last century, by the ancestor of some Italian designer who had only recently become famous.

"Can I help you with anything?" The bubbly voice came from somewhere to Zelda's left. Her head snapped to the side, eyes widening and scowl already forming. No. Wait. This woman was only trying to help. And Satan knew that Zelda was in no position to turn away help. She was only surprised that the high-collared wool dress she was wearing had not scared this particular mortal away. She knew that she looked like she was on her way to a funeral.  _Pays to be prepared_ , she had thought to herself when she selected it that morning. Hilda's confession regarding the job interview had almost earned her a very different kind of excursion. Namely, to the Cain Pit in the Spellman's front yard. She turned to face the woman, vaguely recognizing her as a teacher at Sabrina's school. Mary something-or-other. She was wearing a friendly smile, painted cherry pink. All of a sudden, Zelda's sweat made her feel unbearably shiny and her black dress felt itchy and heavy in all the wrong places.  _Huh_.

Zelda forcefully contorted her scowl so that it resembled something closer to a smile. "No, thank you. I'm just looking." The woman laughed and shook out her long, black hair. It hung in untamed tendrils around her face and it made Zelda's breathing hitch for a moment. She smelled like cherries, too. "You  _look_  a little lost, honey. Can I ask what kind of vibe you're going for?" It suddenly came to Zelda's attention that she was standing in the middle of a sea of gingham and candy pink, and that this particular aisle was not going to be the source of her casual outfit. She had absolutely no experience navigating these waters, and perhaps a little bit of guidance would have her home faster than she expected. She sighed and, in a move that was uncharacteristic if not unheard of, divulged the real reason for her presence at the mall. "I am supposed to take my young niece and her friends to the cinema. When their parents come to drop them off, I need to be wearing an outfit that will not send them away, screaming." Ambrose's words. 

"I think I have just the thing." Her guide disappeared into the sea of cheap nylon and polyester, leaving Zelda by herself. Alone, she felt self-conscious in a way that she hadn't in decades. The late afternoon sun continued to stream in and reflect off the white surfaces that plastered the store, blinding her. She squeezed her eyes shut so as to keep back the single tear of frustration that had found its way out of the duct.  _I just want to go home_. She felt like a child. She could trap demons and embalm corpses without batting an eye, but a single outing to a shopping mall had affected her so. It was humiliating. 

She was considering turning on her heel and abandoning the whole operation when Mary returned. "Got it!" Zelda smiled in spite of herself. With an armful of grey, navy and maroon fabric in tow, Mary had clearly paid attention to the kinds of conservative hues Zelda preferred. She had also taken care to avoid the dreary black of Zelda's current ensemble. Zelda picked up a shirt and carefully unfolded it, noting that it was made of linen. The other clothes Mary had selected were made of cotton and wool. "How," Zelda asked, astonished, "did you manage to find clothes I might actually wear in a store like this?" Mary's laugh rang out again, and Zelda thought to herself that it sounded like many hundreds of little bells in the wind. "They were the  _only_  possible items of clothing in this store I thought you might like. Now, go try them on!"

Ten minutes later, Zelda found herself in the change room sporting skinny jeans, a soft, grey t-shirt, and something that Mary had referred to as"Keds". The jeans had been a last minute addition, thrown over the door of her change room by an eager Mary. Much to her own surprise, Zelda had tried them on. For several minutes now she had been busy admiring her legs and the curves of her hips that were hugged just so by her new ensemble. "Well," Mary shouted from outside the door, "come out and show me!" Zelda caught herself smiling in the mirror.  _This must be what it's like_ , she thought,  _to be a mortal and have a friend that makes tasks like these more bearable_. She briefly wondered if, perhaps, Hilda had a friend that she didn't know about. Probably.

"I'll just be a second!" Zelda emerged from the safety of her change room, feeling like a butterfly that had just broken out of its chrysalis. Mary's face broke out into an enormous smile. "Look at you!" she teased. "Totally normal!" Zelda felt her cheeks turn pink. "Do you really think that it's appropriate for a public outing?" Mary rolled her eyes. "Yes! Please go and buy it, or I will." At that, Zelda felt suddenly bold. Her usual self-assurance had been in hiding since she had set foot in the outlet mall earlier that afternoon, and she was pleased to have it back, if only for a moment. "I will go and buy it, as long as you agree to accompany me to the cinema this Sunday. We will see the furthest thing we can find from some inane children's feature. Perhaps a horror film?"

Mary's eyes shone bright and she grinned a mischievous grin. "Now, how did you know that I love horror?"

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